Monday, July 14, 2014

Personalized Bookish T-Shirt DIY Tutorial | Printable Freebie

This is probably the easiest screenprinted T-Shirt you could ever imagine, it'll take you less than 2h to complete the project, and most of the time you'll spend on it will be the "cutting out your design" part, which - if you're skilled and have a good x-acto knife (I'm not and I don't) - will significantly shorten the time.

What you'll need:

T-Shirt

Freezer Paper & Iron (I didn't have freezer paper on hand, so I just printed the design on a thick piece of paper, worked just as well)

X-Acto Knife (or, I don't know, a scalpel? You know, if you happen to have a torture chamber in your basement).

Fabric Paint (I got my fabric paint at Michaels, but you can get them at Walmart or Amazon, too. Tulip Soft Matte in White, medium bottle will make about 3-4 T-shirts and it costs about $6)

Foam Brush (a set of 4 cost me $2 at Michaels)

How to do it:

1) If you're using Freezer Paper, secure it to a thicker piece of paper and run it through your printer. If you're using just a thicker paper, you just print your design directly onto it. Freezer Paper works better for one simple reason : you can iron it onto your T-shirt and it will stick, allowing a cleaner, more detailed design with no accidental smudges (no worries, after you're done painting, you can pull the freezer paper right off). If it's just paper you'll need to secure it with pins or tape. It's doable, I did that, but I imagine it'll be easier with the FP!

4) Place thick paper or piece of cardboard inside your T-Shirt (it'll prevent the paint from soaking through to the backside). Using the foam brush, dab the paint carefully onto the cut-out parts of your design. Try not to drag the brush across too much. Use at least two coats.

5) You can pull of the stencil while the paint is still damp or when it's completely dried. Leave the T-Shirt to dry for about 4 hours. You can run a warm iron over it to help it set after that, though I didn't and it stays on just fine. Wash the T-Shirt no sooner than 72h after applying the paint (washing machine is fine!).

There, you have your own personalized T-Shirt now! Was that an easy-breeze project, or what? :)

Free Printable Book Quote:

Click on the image to see the full size. Save to your disc for printing.